…showed that GRP, which is used extensively in boat manufacturing, is breaking down and contaminating coastal waters.
I suspect that this is being reported wrongly and the study says no such thing.
This is isn’t a case of a GPR hull floating by and releasing a shower of microplastics.
Rather it’s the repair work that’s the problem, when the hull is being sanded down or drilled into, releasing plastics and glass fibres into the wild. Hence why they found it near a boatyard and in winter. A lot of that could probably be prevented by working indoors and with proper filtration and waste handling. But this will further push boating in the direction of a sport for the rich.
Time to go back to wooden boats. But those, too, cost either a lot of time or a lot of money to keep afloat. Something only the rich have.
